Palm Utility Programs

Where do you keep the dozens of ID's and passwords that you have accumulated over time?
Want something a little more secure than Memo Pad?

PassBank
is a password database with a simple encryption/decryption scheme. This was a project for
learning a new language and a new platform, so it's not bulletproof. The only limit on the
number of records is the available free space in RAM. Copying the database to another Palm
with PassBank to read it there won't work: it's keyed to the HotSync User ID.
The security will keep out most of your kids, but not the NSA ;-)

After installing on your Palm, run PassBank. You will be prompted for a password to use with PassBank.
Enter a password and tap the Enter button. You will get the data entry/display screen.
There will be one entry in the listbox, the entry for PassBank.
After verifying your User ID and Password, go back to the Palm application menu
and test your password. You can change the Password for PassBank just as you would any other Item.

You can view, edit, delete, or print an existing entry by selecting it in the listbox or finding it
via Find Item.

Select Edit from the menu to use Cut, Copy, Paste, or Undo.

To save changes to an Item, tap the Save Changes button.
If you make changes to an Item and exit PassBank with that Item displayed,
the changes to that Item will automatically be saved. If you turn off the Palm with
PassBank active, or an auto-off occurs with PassBank active, it sets a flag to do a save and exit
when the Palm is next turned on. This gives a brief flash of the PassBank screen when the
Palm is turned on again and a short delay while the data is saved. The Palm will then display the
launcher screen.
To delete a displayed Item, tap the Delete button. You will be prompted to verify
the deletion.

To add a new entry when an existing entry is displayed, tap Clear to clear the fields.
When you tap in the Item field, the Save button will be displayed. Or select Action
then Create from the menu. When finished creating a new entry, tap Save.

To print a displayed Item, tap the Print button or select Action then Print Current
from the menu.
Selecting Action then Print All will print all the entries. Items can be
printed with or without their passwords. Blank fields do not print.
(You must have PalmPrint [version 3 for OS4 and lower, version 4.x for OS5] or the
equivalent version of SCSPrint from
Stevens Creek software to
use the Print functions.)

The encrypt/decrypt functions are in the crypto.cod module.
This gives you the option of using better encryption without changing the core program.
In the current version, only the Password is encrypted.

Source for this program and a Visual Basic program (with source) to read the database
on a PC is available for $10.

What version number changes mean:

2.x -> 3.0 - major functional change

3.1 -> 3.2 - bug fix or added feature (such as support for PalmPrint in 3.2)

3.2.1 -> 3.2.2 - small, usually cosmetic change

Version 5.0 added Copy, Cut, Paste, and one level of Undo. It does better detection of fields that
have been changed and need to be saved.
Version 4.5 added "clear screen and save" on power off.
Version 4.4 added "Create" to the menu.
Version 4.3 added the option to Show/Hide the PassBank password during login.
Version 4.2 allowed editing the Item name and provided audible notification of a successful search.
Version 4.1 added the last modification date to the menu.
Version 4.0 had major internal changes to provide for an unlimited number of entries, reduce
memory usage, and speed up searching.

This is a work in progress, so come back occasionally to get the latest version.
If you have a "killer" enhancement, send email.

Ever wonder if your electric meter provides any information that might be useful to ordinary
humans? What if it could tell you how much power a specific appliance uses?

How do you read the meter? You don't have to

KW Calculator uses the time it takes for the moving dial to make one revolution to compute
the total current power being used. Turning one appliance on or off and taking another reading
will tell you how much power that appliance uses.

You need to get the Kh factor from the faceplate of the electric meter. It will be indicated
by a "Kh" marking and be something like 6.3 or 7.2. This is an indicator of
how much power is required to turn the disk one full revolution. Combining this factor with
the time it takes for the dial to make one revolution will give the current load. See
Watt's Your Power? for more
information.

To make the timing easy, the program includes a timer that can track clock ticks.
It's accurate to +/- 0.1 second.

Version 1.4.1 updates the contact information on the Info screen.
Version 1.4 saves the most recently used Kh value so you don't have to enter it every time
you check your meter. If you use the built-in timer, it calculates the power used
when you tap the "Stop Timer" button.

On one of the Palm newsgroups, someone asked if it was possible to generate a barcode on the Palm
screen and scan that code. My first thought was that generating the code would be relatively
simple, but that the Palm screen was too reflective for a scanner to work with.

Code 3 of 9 is my way of testing that answer. It generates a 3 of 9 barcode of up
to 7 characters on the Palm screen.

Testing with a Symbol SPT1500 laser scanner proves that the barcodes are valid, as a screen print
of the Palm Emulator (on an old HP inkjet printer) scans correctly.

My assumption about the reflectivity of the screen was also correct, at least for the unit used in
testing (Palm IIIxe), as the scanner sees no barcode at all :-(
Other people have reported being able to scan bar codes dislayed on a Tungsten screen.
Sorry, but I don't have one to test on.

Version 1.5 changes the narrow/wide bar ratio for more reliable scanning of the printed screen
capture and has a Demo button (if you can't think of any text to bar code).
Version 1.3 corrects intercharacter spacing for specific character combinations.

IRTest is a very simple IR communications program. It uses no protocol and does
not check for transmission errors. It allows you to send and receive messages between
m68k-based Palms (III, V, etc). It may not work on the newer Palms (Tungsten) with the OMAP
processor because of differences in how the devices handle IR. If you would
like to donate an OS5 device for testing, I would be most appreciative, and would be happy to
give you credit on this page.

Want to experiment an NSBasic screen capture/display program? This is primarily for the OS5
devices with fast processors - waiting 6 minutes for a screen capture on an m125 isn't for
most people. This is a proof-of-concept
program - it does not capture the Palm color palette, so the captured screens are displayed with the
current device's default colors. There's also a PC program to display the captured screens.

Screen captures are done using the Palm OS Emulator with OS 4.1 and the Palm
OS 5.1 or 5.3 Simulator. "Live" testing is done on a Palm Zire with OS 4.1,
Palm M125 with OS 4.0.1, a Palm IIIxe with OS 4.1, a Palm V with OS 3.5.3, a Symbol SPT1500
scanner with OS 3.0.2r3 and a Zire 31 with OS 5.2.

More to come when I have time to play ;-)

Need to HotSync your data between a Palm and a PC?
NSB Conduit Builder makes it easy to create a conduit.
Here's a quick walk-through of building a conduit with NSB Conduit Builder.

If you find one of these programs useful, please consider donating $2.00 to help support these pages.